The Law School is home to a number of interesting works of art. Invariably, art elicits different and quirky opinions. We here at the Law Weekly believe it is our duty to not only share the copious amounts of artwork at the School, especially with our virtual readers, but also give you our seasoned art critiques. All photo credits to Devon Chenelle ’23 unless otherwise indicated.
Name: Follow the Leader - John Borden Evans, 2003
Drew Calamaro '21: On the first day of 1L, there was a crowd of people near the entrance of WB Hall, just mingling and meeting one another. I walked a little down the hall to go check out my locker, and stood in front of this painting. I thought to myself “oh my god this is us. We are being turned into sheep by this school.” I have yet to see anything contrary to that. This school turns you into a sheeple.
Jacob Jones '21: These sheep represent the law school curve. Everybody’s clearly just trying to imitate the smartest sheep in the front. But at the end of the day they all end up at the same place: the slaughterhouse we call the legal profession.
Doug Graebner '21: The menacing army of sheep comes to claim us and subdue us across a haunted, exhausted landscape destroyed by years of warfare by Demon Sheep. The dissonant serenity of a wintery tree only extends the alienation
Name: Untitled
Drew Calamaro '21: This looks like a bunch of people’s bottom torsos standing without a top torso. Perhaps they went into one of those Indiana Jones grave sites and got their top torsos cut off. That would explain the red in the background. The green signifies peace. This painting is a masterpiece.
Ben Stievater '22: A rare hand drawn sketch of a scene from the unreleased, grittier version of Disney’s 1997 animated classic Hercules, wherein the singing muses were all gruesomely decapitated by the Hydra mid-song. Good call, Disney—it’s a little too heavy for the kids.
Jacob Smith '23: Electric bass guitars, hunting rifles, carvings of stork heads—it really doesn’t matter what “they” are. The important thing to remember as Halloween approaches is that evil things happen when you stick five of them together.
Name: Arden Spring - Mary Paige Evans
Jacob Jones '21: After the artist had finished shrieking and throwing paint, everyone politely clapped and pretended this had meaning.
Kathryn Querner '22: Can’t believe someone framed my LRW final memo. This has to be like copyright infringement or something.
Name: Mortimer M. Caplin
Leah Deskins '21: This portrait always reminds me of my grandfather, who also liked boxing and was probably a lawyer in another life. In this life, though, he was an orthodontist.
Jacob Smith '23: As I walk to the Caplin pavilion, this painting gives me the impression that an enormously successful rich man is happy and I can enjoy the fruits of his labors.
Jacob Jones '21: Mortimer Caplin has a warm smile that accepts you and your B+ average, despite your full ride he paid for.
Name: Borrowed View, Stoney Basin Polyptych - Ray Kass
Leah Deskins '21: This piece of art has the exact same color scheme as my comforter and pillow shams.
Jacob Jones '21: My class doodles have cooler geometric patterns.
Ben Stievater '22: Are you trying to tell me this isn’t a collage of Kleenex box patterns?
Name: Untitled - Javier Tapia 1997
Drew Calamaro '21: This piece is untitled because Javier Tapia died in a painting accident before naming it. Many say he would have named it “Jail: a look inside of contracts.” I, myself, would have named it “The misery of networking.”
Douglas Graebner '21: A fascinating meta-commentary on art criticism, showing the photographer’s gaze as he inflicts pseudo-scientific scrutiny on the artist’s self-expression.
Phil Tonseth '22: This looks like the life of my dinner as it progresses from my plate to the sewer. I'm not sure I ever wanted to see this in real life though.